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Sunday, 25 December 2011

Well, today is December 25th,
and, sure enough, I made it to this country in time for Christmas…or, rather, I
made it here for another typical day in Saudi Arabia. In any case, I’m stopping
by for a brief moment to wish you all a safe and wonderfully blessed Christmas!
Here in Jeddah, there is no holiday and the religious police have apparently
been around making sure no one is publicly celebrating a Christian holiday in
this 100% Islamic state!

Despite the policing, I subtly met
up for Christmas Eve desserts (I mean, a typical evening out) last evening with
someone I consider a good friend. Now that I’ve been here in Jeddah for a week,
I finally got to meet DH’s former boss, a lovely American woman married to a
Saudi who lives here in Jeddah! To her, thanks so much for the lovely evening
out—my first excursion with a Jeddawi friend! We had scrumptious chocolate
desserts and sat in the “family” section of the restaurant (where single women,
children and families are to sit because of segregation; single men have their
own section). It was a relaxing and nice atmosphere to enjoy Christmas Eve.

!Dessert Menu...yummy

Today, DH, of course, had to work
(weekends here are Thursday / Friday) and when he finally got home, he had
news: the car wouldn’t start when he was about to drive home! We had a quick
dinner before he headed back out to figure out how to get a mechanic to the
vehicle.

In the meantime, I am putting
finishing touches on Christmas / belated Eid dinner! In our own home we’re allowed to
celebrate, just as long as we’re discreet about it and not putting trees and
lights up in the hallway of our apartment haha I feel like a “real” wife
finally, cooking chicken (turkey is outrageously expensive here), stuffing, potatoes,
roasting vegetables, and baking cookies for a lovely dinner. We’re looking
forward to sitting down to enjoy it at out new kitchen table and chairs! More
on our home decorating endeavors soon J

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

First of all, a bit of an editorial note: now
that I’m in Saudi, my computer has decided to take on Arabic preferences, and
all my punctuation keeps moving to the beginning of my sentences haha My
apologies for this. I’ll try to figure out how to fix it soon!

Great news!!!

Well, if anyone placed bets on my visa, whoever
guessed day 71 is a winner! Yes, dear readers—on Wednesday December 14, 2011 I finally
received my Saudi visa! The previous day, I had sent a desperate email to the
head of my visa consulting agency, explaining how long I’d been waiting and
asking what was going on. How could things possibly be taking so long? The next
morning, he emailed me back with the news that my visa was on its way via Purolator,
to arrive before 9am on Thursday morning. Alhamdulillah (praise God in Arabic)!

I was sitting at my laptop upstairs, and upon
reading the news I literally bounded down about 20 stairs, hitting only 3 of
them, yelling “I GOT MY VISA!!!!” I scared my poor cat to near death, and my
dad came running… I hugged him and just started crying with relief. Yay!!!

The excitement spreads…

Next, I called my husband who didn’t answer the
phone, so I forwarded him the consultant’s email, and then called my soon to be
boss having promised to let her know as soon as I received any news.

DH soon called me back and said he nearly began
to cry in front of some former students he had been visiting. We were both so
HAPPY!!!!! A Christmas miracle, one of my friends says! J I think so!

I didn’t waste any time booking my flight to
Jeddah, and after being reassured that my visa would arrive before 9am Thursday
morning, I figured it would be safe to book a Thursday night flight. DH’s best
man is a travel agent and he was kind enough to book me a great flight on
Etihad Airways. I had a longggg stopover in Abu Dhabi, but it was nice to walk
around the airport. I put on my abaya to blend in, and got more used to walking
around wearing it.

Etihad Airways

In Abu Dhabi I met my first Saudi friend, who
had been on my flight from Canada. She’s from Riyadh and is returning home with
her husband for a school break. He studies in Canada, and so we got into a
conversation about student / accompanying spouse visas for Canada. Inshallah, I
will write more about this lovely lady in my forthcoming post on Saudi women.

Life so far

After only 4 days here (and I’m still very jet lagged)
I have LOTS to write about! I want to describe life in Jeddah, my first Saudi
friend, and my experience at the university medical center where I had my first
encounter with a very different way of interacting (or not interacting!) with
the opposite sex. In experiencing these things, I have the tendency to see the
culture, its people and life through an academic lens lol I don’t know if this
is good, but it is, in truth, a big part of what drew me to agree to come to
Saudi.

mini Jeddah roundabout at night...

My sociological study…

I have, if you will, a working thesis that I’ve
brought along with me to the Kingdom. Every Saudi / Saudi resident I’ve so far
met in person agrees with me, so let’s see how true it turns out to be!

Basically, my “argument” is that the Western
World has an extremely biased and tainted view about Saudi Arabia—its culture,
its women, its religion and its laws. Our conceptions of the Kingdom impede us
from recognizing the unique and valuable elements of Saudi society, and many
positive values we might benefit from integrating into our own society.

This is doubtlessly not controversial to most
people I’ll meet in the Kingdom, but to readers, family, friends back home, it
might be more shocking! What do you think? Has the media perpetuated a
particular view of what Saudi Arabia is? How its people interact? What the
nation stands for? How women live? Certainly, there will be some elements of
our conceptions that are true, but I want to suggest that, for the most part, our
ideas about Saudi Arabia are overwhelmingly tainted by media dramatization and propaganda.

Culture shock?

Thus far, I’m holding my breath. Having been
here only 4 days, I have had some bits and pieces of culture shock in a couple
situations, but I’m trying to learn how to interact, to learn the etiquette and
the proper way of doing things here. Inshallah I’ll learn quickly!

Finally, I can acquire experiential knowledge
that extends beyond my extensive and long investigated “book knowledge” of this
amazing country…the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

I look forward to sharing more of my journey
with you all!

All my love from the desert sands of
Jeddah…where we have pleasant warm weather, sunshine and no snow!

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Advent: A Time of Joyful AnticipationWell, I'm just stopping by to thank everyone who's commented and supported me throughout this long waiting period. There are 19 days left until Christmas...and I am now trying to think about waiting for my visa in terms of the "joyful hope" to which this Advent season calls us.

Second week of Advent

On Sunday at Mass, the readings were about waiting and time. 2 Peter 3: 8-9 relevantly proclaims:

...do not forget this one thing, dear
friends: with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are
like a day. The Lord is not slow keeping His promise, as some understand
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance.

Good news: my visa's been approved!I've decided that if God is outside of time, then I should give up my expectation of Him answering my prayers for my visa in MY time; rather, everything will happen in God's own time. The above passage really hit home for me--especially since my visa consultant contacted the Saudi embassy last week and let me know this greatttt news: MY VISA HAS BEEN APPROVED!!!!! Now, my waiting CAN be in joyful anticipation because I know, as with Advent, it's to a definite end! I will be going to Jeddah. It's just a question of when the embassy decides to physically stamp my visa and send it back to me.

I've decided to use this time to perfect the virtue of patience, and to keep trusting in God. As St. Peter suggests, I've let go of time (as much as I can) and am trying to just be.

Preparatory WaitingTo anyone else out there reading this and waiting for something--whether it be Christmas day, a visa, being reunited with a spouse or family, or anything at all--consider your own wait a time of preparation. Preparation for the fulfillment of God's plan, for your life, for your future. Inshallah, everything will come into place as it is meant to be.

I invite you all to wait with me in joyful anticipation for the wonderful future ahead!

About Me

I am an English PhD candidate embarking on a couple of exciting journeys: marriage, and a big move to Saudi Arabia! This blog is about my move abroad and my cultural observations of the well known—but often misunderstood—Middle Eastern Kingdom.